Joe Kennedy III visits Taunton Career Center

Lacking the right set of skills is a common barrier to finding employment, local labor officials said Monday.“We had about 5,500 people come in to the Taunton Career Center last fiscal year,” Bristol Workforce Investment Board Director Tom Perreira said. “When we’re unable to fill a posit...

Lacking the right set of skills is a common barrier to finding employment, local labor officials said Monday.

“We had about 5,500 people come in to the Taunton Career Center last fiscal year,” Bristol Workforce Investment Board Director Tom Perreira said. “When we’re unable to fill a position, that’s frustrating.”

U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III visited the Taunton Career Center on Monday. During the stop, the freshman lawmaker toured the facility, learned about its programs and met jobseekers and career center employees.

“How can we help?” the congressman said as he stepped into a conference room at the center.

Labor officials said supporting programs to train and educate jobseekers to meet the needs of local employers is a major piece of the puzzle.

“Where we see the highest growth rates is in positions that require a higher skill set,” Perreira said. “Training and instruction mean a lot.”

Up to half the jobseekers who come into Bristol County Career Centers have deficiencies in skills, he said.

“Funding is an important piece of it,” Kennedy said. “So is publicity. We’re trying to make sure people understand the resources that are out there.”

Taunton Career Center manager Eric Alberto explained some of the ways the Taunton Career Center helps people find work. It offers resources to help with resume development and interviewing skills. It also makes efforts to bring in employers to meet with jobseekers.

“There are some barriers with the skill sets,” Alberto said.

Unemployment in Bristol County typically hovers above the state average, Perreira said. One factor leading to elevated local unemployment is the prominent role manufacturing has traditionally played in the region’s economy. During the economic downturn, many manufacturing jobs disappeared.

In May, the most recent month for which data has been released, Fall River had an unemployment rate of 12.5 percent, one of the highest in Massachusetts. Taunton’s unemployment rate that same month was 7.5 percent, compared to a statewide rate of 6.8 percent.

During fiscal 2013, which just ended June 30, 5,497 individual jobseekers came into the Taunton Career Center. The Fall River Career Center served 8,919 over the same period. Approximately 20,000 sought services throughout Bristol County.

Kennedy also spoke about tax reforms as a way to help employers.

“Corporate tax reform is something on the agenda in Washington,” Kennedy said. “I think if you asked anyone, regardless of party, they’d say it has to get done and it has to be internationally competitive.”

That said, Kennedy isn’t optimistic that such reforms will be enacted soon.

“It’s more complicated as you get into the details of how it can get done,” he said. Given the dynamics of Washington today, it’s difficult for me to see how it would get done soon … but they’re laying the groundwork.”